David in the Bible

Meaning: well-beloved, dear

Exact Match

And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

And from that day the ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a very long time, for it was twenty years [until the reign of King David]; and all the house of Israel lamented (wailed) and grieved after the Lord.

But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man (David) after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as leader and ruler over His people, because you have not kept (obeyed) what the Lord commanded you.”

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.

And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul.

And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.

And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight.

Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.

And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren;

And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.

And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.

And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them.

And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.

Then David turned away from Eliab to someone else and asked the same question; and the people gave him the same answer as the first time.

And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him.

And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:

David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.

And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.

And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.

And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him.

And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.

Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent.

And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.

And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.

And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

Saul took David that day and did not let him return to his father’s house.

And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.

And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.

And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?

And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul's hand.

And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.

So Saul had David removed from his presence and appointed him as his commander of a thousand; and he publicly associated with the people.

And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD'S battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.

And David said unto Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son in law to the king?

But it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul's daughter should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.

And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain.

And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee: now therefore be the king's son in law.

And Saul's servants spake those words in the ears of David. And David said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son in law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?

And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son in law: and the days were not expired.

Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.

Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by.

And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.

But Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:

And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to theeward very good:

For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?

Saul listened to Jonathan’s advice and swore an oath: “As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be killed.”

And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.

And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from him.

And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.

And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

Saul also sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David's wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.

And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.

So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu: and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah.

And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?

And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.

Then said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee.

And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.

If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? or what if thy father answer thee roughly?

And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field.

And Jonathan said unto David, O LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about to morrow any time, or the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee, and shew it thee;

But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth.

So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David's enemies.

Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.

Thematic Bible



It happened, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. It happened at evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look on. David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" read more.
David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child."


Nathan departed to his house. The LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it was very sick. David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his house arose beside him, to raise him up from the ground: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. read more.
It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?" But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He is dead." Then David arose from the ground, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into the house of the LORD, and worshiped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, "What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread." He said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?' But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."


My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me;

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.


Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "Isn't it so, if peace and truth shall be in my days?"

But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

but if he say thus, 'I have no delight in you;' behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him."


Over those who did the work of the field for tillage of the ground was Ezri the son of Chelub:


Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, "Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?" Abishai said, "I will go down with you."


Gad came that day to David, and said to him, "Go up, build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded.


Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.


But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, "Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD's anointed?"

Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you."

And he sent and brought him in. And he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for he is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, saying, "The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul."

So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel.

Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.


It happened, when David had come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, roasted grain, honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat: for they said, "The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness."

Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went over the Jordan with the king, to conduct him over the Jordan. Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man. The king said to Barzillai, "Come over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Jerusalem." read more.
Barzillai said to the king, "How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king? Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you." The king answered, "Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you. Whatever you require of me, that I will do for you." All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. Then the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place.

But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.

Of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name.

Of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name.


"You, son of man, take a sharp sword; You shall take it as a barber's razor to you, and shall cause it to pass on your head and on your beard: then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.


And he sent and brought him in. And he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for he is the one."

Then one of the young men answered, and said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a comely person; and the LORD is with him."


Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, A fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me. I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.

Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me.

You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can't escape.

You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.


The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, "My son Absalom. My son, my son Absalom. I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son."

The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, "My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son."


Nathan departed to his house. The LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it was very sick. David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his house arose beside him, to raise him up from the ground: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. read more.
It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?" But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He is dead." Then David arose from the ground, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into the house of the LORD, and worshiped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, "What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread." He said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?' But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."


Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.


David said, "Is there yet any who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?"

She opens her mouth with wisdom. Faithful instruction is on her tongue.


David went there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what God will do for me." He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.

For you are my hope, Lord GOD; my confidence from my youth.

God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.


His father had never scolded him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?" And he was also a very handsome man; and he was born after Absalom.


The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided a king for myself among his sons."


Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."


David said to him, "How were you not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?"

He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed, to put forth my hand against him, since he is the LORD's anointed." So David checked his men with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way. David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, "My lord the king." When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and showed respect. read more.
David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to men's words, saying, 'Behold, David seeks your hurt?' Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD's anointed.

Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, "Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?" Abishai said, "I will go down with you." So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him. Then Abishai said to David, "God has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time." read more.
David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against the LORD's anointed, and be guiltless?" David said, "As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go." So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head; and they went away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen on them. Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain afar off; a great space being between them; and David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, "Do you not answer, Abner?" Then Abner answered, "Who are you who cries to the king?" David said to Abner, "Aren't you a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. This thing isn't good that you have done. As the LORD lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the LORD's anointed. Now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head."


I am a friend of all those who fear you, of those who observe your precepts.


But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.


David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

The king went forth, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.


For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.

saying, "I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? You see to it."

David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."

and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.

If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

I said, "LORD, have mercy on me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you."


David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."


The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance.


Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD.

David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine."

Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak."

Elisha said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I respect the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you, nor see you.


Most certainly my house is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he doesn't make it grow.

"I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant, 'I will establish your seed forever, and build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah.


"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel, and shall strike through the corners of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Ought you not to know that the LORD, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

Out of Jacob shall one have dominion, and shall destroy the remnant from the city."

and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD tells you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. read more.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever."'"

I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the first, and from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I tell you that the LORD will build you a house. It shall happen, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. read more.
He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from him that was before you; but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne shall be established forever."'"

'Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; nor did I choose any man to be a leader over my people Israel: but I chose Jerusalem, that my name may be there; and I chose David to be over my people Israel.' Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. read more.
But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart: nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.' "The LORD has performed his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. There I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with the children of Israel." He stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands (for Solomon had made a bronze scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and on it he stood, and kneeled down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;) and he said, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven, or on earth; you who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart; who have kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him: yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day. "Now therefore, LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.' Now therefore, LORD, the God of Israel, let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David.

However the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a lamp to him and to his children always.

Then you spoke in vision to your holy ones, and said, "I have bestowed strength on the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people. I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil, with whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him. read more.
No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him. I will beat down his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him. But my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted. I will set his hand also on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers. He will call to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.' I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. I will keep my loving kindness for him forevermore. My covenant will stand firm with him. I will also make his seed endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my Law, and do not walk in my ordinances; if they break my statutes, and do not keep my commandments; then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not completely take my loving kindness from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail. I will not break my covenant, nor alter what my lips have uttered. Once have I sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His seed will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me. It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." Selah.

A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open. read more.
I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father's house. They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers. "In that day," says the LORD of hosts, "the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down, and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken it."

In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name by which she shall be called: "The LORD our righteousness." For thus says the LORD: "David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; read more.
neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually."'" The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD: 'If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season; then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven can't be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.'" The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, "Do not consider what this people has spoken, saying, 'The two families which the LORD chose, he has cast them off?' Thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus says the LORD: 'If my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them.'"

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom."


When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; read more.
but my loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever."'"

It shall happen, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from him that was before you; read more.
but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne shall be established forever."'"

"Now therefore, LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.'

Most certainly my house is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he doesn't make it grow.

"I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant, 'I will establish your seed forever, and build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah.

The LORD has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: "I will set the fruit of your body on your throne. If your children will keep my covenant, my testimony that I will teach them, their children also will sit on your throne forevermore."

'After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David, which has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins. I will set it up,

Again, Isaiah says, "There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope."


And as Jesus passed by from there, two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, "Have mercy on us, son of David."

And just then a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and started shouting, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely demonized."

And all the crowds were amazed, and said, "Can this be the son of David?"

The crowds who went before him, and who followed kept shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest."

And just then two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, shouted, "Lord, have mercy on us, son of David." The crowd rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they shouted even more, "Lord, have mercy on us, son of David."

saying, "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "Of David."

When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he shouted all the louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me."

They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.

Those who led the way rebuked him, that he should be quiet; but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me."


who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;

David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brothers the singers, with instruments of music, stringed instruments and harps and cymbals, sounding aloud and lifting up the voice with joy.

four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which I made, for giving praise."

and his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them.

David came to Saul, and stood before him. He loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer. Saul sent to Jesse, saying, "Please let David stand before me; for he has found favor in my sight." It happened, when the spirit from God was on Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to give thanks to the LORD, when David praised by their ministry, saying "For his loving kindness endures for ever." The priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.

The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.


Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons. And in the days of Saul the man was old among men.

Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."

Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron, and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon, read more.
and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.

The sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah; which three were born to him by Bath-Shua the Canaanite woman. Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and he killed him. Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him Perez and Zerah. All the sons of Judah were five. The sons of Perez: Hezron, and Hamul. read more.
The sons of Zerah: Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda; five of them in all. The sons of Carmi: Achar, the troubler of Israel, who committed a trespass in the devoted thing. The sons of Ethan: Azariah. The sons also of Hezron, who were born to him: Jerahmeel, and Ram, and Chelubai. Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, prince of the children of Judah; and Nahshon became the father of Salma, and Salma became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse; and Jesse became the father of his firstborn Eliab, and Abinadab the second, and Shimea the third, Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth, Ozem the sixth, David the seventh;

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, read more.
and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah;

the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, read more.
the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.


"The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me. His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, 'One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.' read more.
Most certainly my house is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he doesn't make it grow. But all of the ungodly shall be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can't be taken with the hand, But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They shall be utterly burned with fire in their place."

"All this," said David, "I have been made to understand in writing from the hand of the LORD, even all the works of this pattern."

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "Of David." He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, read more.
'The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'? "If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forth.

For David says concerning him, 'I saw the Lord always before my face, For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope; because you will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay. read more.
You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.' "Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that one of his descendants would sit on his throne, he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah, that neither was he left in hell, nor did his flesh see decay. This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit by my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."' "Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified." Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of your servant, David, said, 'Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?


The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

six were born to him in Hebron; and there he reigned seven years and six months. In Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years;

Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron, saying, "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. The LORD your God said to you, 'You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.'" So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.

These are the numbers of the heads of those who were armed for war, who came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the LORD. The children of Judah who bore shield and spear were six thousand and eight hundred, armed for war. Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valor for the war, seven thousand and one hundred. read more.
Of the children of Levi four thousand and six hundred. Jehoiada was the leader of the household of Aaron; and with him were three thousand and seven hundred, and Zadok, a young man mighty of valor, and of his father's house twenty-two captains. Of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand: for hitherto the greatest part of them had kept their allegiance to the house of Saul. Of the children of Ephraim twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of valor, famous men in their fathers' houses. Of the half-tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were mentioned by name, to come and make David king. Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their heads were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their commandment. Of Zebulun, such as were able to go out in the army, who could set the battle in array, with all kinds of instruments of war, fifty thousand, and who could command and were not of double heart. Of Naphtali one thousand captains, and with them with shield and spear thirty-seven thousand. Of the Danites who could set the battle in array, twenty-eight thousand six hundred. Of Asher, such as were able to go out in the army, who could set the battle in array, forty thousand. On the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and of the half-tribe of Manasseh, with all kinds of instruments of war for the battle, one hundred twenty thousand. All these being men of war, who could order the battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. They were there with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brothers had made preparation for them. Moreover those who were near to them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on donkeys, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, food of meal, cakes of figs, and clusters of raisins, and wine, and oil, and cattle, and sheep in abundance: for there was joy in Israel.

The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.


The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

six were born to him in Hebron; and there he reigned seven years and six months. In Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years;

Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron, saying, "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. The LORD your God said to you, 'You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.'" So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.

It happened after this, that David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?" The LORD said to him, "Go up." David said, "Where shall I go up?" He said, "To Hebron." So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. David brought up his men who were with him, every man with his household. They lived in the cities of Hebron. read more.
The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, saying, "The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul."

The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.


Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

"'"My servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them. They shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, forever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.

but they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them.

I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them;" I, the LORD, have spoken it.



The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go."

So David checked his men with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.

David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, "Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD has invited him.

David said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be adversaries to me? Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel?" The king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." The king swore to him.


David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.


All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers in the thresholds were two hundred and twelve. These were reckoned by genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their office of trust.

David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brothers the singers, with instruments of music, stringed instruments and harps and cymbals, sounding aloud and lifting up the voice with joy. So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brothers, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers, Ethan the son of Kushaiah; and with them their brothers of the second degree, Zechariah, Ben, and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, Eliab, and Benaiah, and Maaseiah, and Mattithiah, and Eliphelehu, and Mikneiah, and Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, the doorkeepers. read more.
So the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were given cymbals of brass to sound aloud; and Zechariah, and Aziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, and Eliab, and Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with stringed instruments set to Alamoth; and Mattithiah, and Eliphelehu, and Mikneiah, and Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, and Azaziah, with harps tuned to the eight-stringed lyre, to lead. Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was over the song: he instructed about the song, because he was skillful. Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark. Shebaniah, and Joshaphat, and Nethanel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, blew the trumpets before the ark of God: and Obed-Edom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark.

He appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, and to celebrate and to thank and praise the LORD, the God of Israel: Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, with stringed instruments and with harps; and Asaph with cymbals, sounding aloud; and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually, before the ark of the covenant of God.

So he left there, before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, Asaph and his brothers, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required; and Obed-Edom with their brothers, sixty-eight; Obed-Edom also the son of Jeduthun and Hosah to be doorkeepers; and Zadok the priest, and his brothers the priests, before the tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon, read more.
to offer burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of burnt offering continually morning and evening, even according to all that is written in the law of the LORD, which he commanded to Israel; and with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who were chosen, who were mentioned by name, to give thanks to the LORD, because his loving kindness endures forever; and with them Heman and Jeduthun with trumpets and cymbals for those that should sound aloud, and with instruments for the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun to be at the gate. All the people departed every man to his house: and David returned to bless his house.



Now the days of David drew near that he should die; and he commanded Solomon his son, saying, "I am going the way of all the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man; and keep the instruction of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn yourself. read more.
That the LORD may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you,' he said, 'a man on the throne of Israel.' "Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was about his waist, and in his shoes that were on his feet. Do therefore according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother. "Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the LORD, saying, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.' Now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood." David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

Then he called for Solomon his son, and commanded him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon his son, "As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. read more.
Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his enemies all around; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.' Now, my son, may the LORD be with you and prosper you, and build the house of the LORD your God, as he has spoken concerning you. May the LORD give you discretion and understanding, and put you in charge of Israel; that so you may keep the law of the LORD your God. Then you will prosper, if you observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which the LORD gave Moses concerning Israel. Be strong, and courageous. Do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of the LORD one hundred thousand talents of gold, one million talents of silver, and brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance. I have also prepared timber and stone; and you may add to them. There are also workmen with you in abundance, cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all kinds of men who are skillful in every kind of work: of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may the LORD be with you." And David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, "Isn't the LORD your God with you? Hasn't he given you rest on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek after the LORD your God. Arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD."


David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David.

He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor: and Solomon his son reigned in his place.

"Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that one of his descendants would sit on his throne,


These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia, and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet.

and these were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bathshua the daughter of Ammiel; and Ibhar, and Elishama, and Eliphelet, and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia, read more.
and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine.

These are the names of the children whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Elpelet, and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia, read more.
and Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphelet.


The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, "You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will repel you"; thinking, "David can't come in here."

David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus); and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, "You shall not come in here." Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the City of David. David said, "Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain." Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, and was made chief. read more.
David lived in the stronghold; therefore they called it the City of David. He built the city all around, from the Millo even around; and Joab repaired the rest of the city.

Woe to Ariel. Ariel, the city where David encamped. Add year to year; let the feasts come around;


But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept that which the LORD commanded you."

because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.


Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided a king for myself among his sons."

Then you spoke in vision to your holy ones, and said, "I have bestowed strength on the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people. I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil, with whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him. read more.
No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him. I will beat down his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him. But my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted. I will set his hand also on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers. He will call to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.' I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. I will keep my loving kindness for him forevermore. My covenant will stand firm with him. I will also make his seed endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my Law, and do not walk in my ordinances; if they break my statutes, and do not keep my commandments; then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not completely take my loving kindness from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail. I will not break my covenant, nor alter what my lips have uttered. Once have I sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His seed will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me. It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." Selah.



These are the numbers of the heads of those who were armed for war, who came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the LORD. The children of Judah who bore shield and spear were six thousand and eight hundred, armed for war. Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valor for the war, seven thousand and one hundred. read more.
Of the children of Levi four thousand and six hundred. Jehoiada was the leader of the household of Aaron; and with him were three thousand and seven hundred, and Zadok, a young man mighty of valor, and of his father's house twenty-two captains. Of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand: for hitherto the greatest part of them had kept their allegiance to the house of Saul. Of the children of Ephraim twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of valor, famous men in their fathers' houses. Of the half-tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were mentioned by name, to come and make David king. Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their heads were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their commandment. Of Zebulun, such as were able to go out in the army, who could set the battle in array, with all kinds of instruments of war, fifty thousand, and who could command and were not of double heart. Of Naphtali one thousand captains, and with them with shield and spear thirty-seven thousand. Of the Danites who could set the battle in array, twenty-eight thousand six hundred. Of Asher, such as were able to go out in the army, who could set the battle in array, forty thousand. On the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and of the half-tribe of Manasseh, with all kinds of instruments of war for the battle, one hundred twenty thousand. All these being men of war, who could order the battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. They were there with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brothers had made preparation for them. Moreover those who were near to them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on donkeys, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, food of meal, cakes of figs, and clusters of raisins, and wine, and oil, and cattle, and sheep in abundance: for there was joy in Israel.


The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint; and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being armed with a new sword, thought to have slain David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you do not quench the lamp of Israel." read more.
It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant. There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, killed him. These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

It happened after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued. There was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were twenty-four, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant. read more.
When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother killed him. These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.



You have delivered me from the strivings of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me.

Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, a foreigner to my mother's children. For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.


The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor: and Solomon his son reigned in his place.



Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no man with you?" David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, 'Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you; and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.' Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present." read more.
The priest answered David, and said, "There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women." David answered the priest, and said to him, "Truly, women have been kept from us about these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?" So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

But he said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, he and his companions; how he entered into the house of God, and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but only for the priests?


Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but did not finish; and there came wrath for this on Israel; neither was the number put into the account in the chronicles of king David.


He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor: and Solomon his son reigned in his place.

David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.


It was told king David, saying, "The LORD has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that pertains to him, because of the ark of God." David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the City of David with joy. It was so, that, when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen ephod. read more.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. It was so, as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.



There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites." The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); and David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?" read more.
The Gibeonites said to him, "It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel." He said, "Whatever you say, that will I do for you." They said to the king, "The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD." The king said, "I will give them." But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before the LORD, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest. Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa; and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated for the land.


David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.

David reigned over all Israel; and he executed justice and righteousness to all his people.


David grew greater and greater; for the LORD, the God of Hosts, was with him.

David grew greater and greater; for the LORD of hosts was with him.



six were born to him in Hebron; and there he reigned seven years and six months. In Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years;

To David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; and his second, Kileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; read more.
and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.


But God said to me, 'You shall not build a house for my name, because you are a man of war, and have shed blood.'


David said to Saul, "Your servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and killed him. Your servant struck both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them [Should I not go and smite him, and remove this day a reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one], since he has defied the armies of the living God?"


Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, and fell on his face, and showed respect. David said, "Mephibosheth." He answered, "Behold, your servant."

Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. It happened, when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, "Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?" He answered, "My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, I will saddle me a donkey, that I may ride thereon, and go with the king; because your servant is lame. read more.
He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is good in your eyes. For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should cry any more to the king?" The king said to him, "Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Ziba divide the land." Mephibosheth said to the king, "Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house."


Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.

Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.


The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, "My son Absalom. My son, my son Absalom. I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son."

It was told Joab, "Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom." The victory that day was turned into mourning to all the people; for the people heard it said that day, "The king grieves for his son." The people sneaked into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. read more.
The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, "My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son."


Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.

Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, "As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to dwell, so deal with me.


and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;

Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met them by the pool of Gibeon; and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. Abner said to Joab, "Please let the young men arise and play before us." Joab said, "Let them arise." Then they arose and went over by number: twelve for Benjamin, and for Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. read more.
They each caught his opponent by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side; so they fell down together: therefore that place was called Helkath Hazzurim, which is in Gibeon. The battle was very severe that day: and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David. The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild gazelle. Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he did not turn to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him, and said, "Is it you, Asahel?" He answered, "It is I." Abner said to him, "Turn aside to your right hand or to your left, and grab one of the young men, and take his armor." But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. Abner said again to Asahel, "Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then should I hold up my face to Joab your brother?" However he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner with the back end of the spear struck him in the body, so that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place. It happened, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still. But Joab and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they had come to the hill of Ammah, that lies before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one band, and stood on the top of a hill. Then Abner called to Joab, and said, "Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long shall it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?" Joab said, "As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely then in the morning the people would have gone away, and not each followed his brother." So Joab blew the trumpet; and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more. Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah; and they passed over the Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and came to Mahanaim. Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David's servants nineteen men and Asahel. But the servants of David had struck of Benjamin, and of Abner's men, so that three hundred sixty men died. They took up Asahel, and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem. Joab and his men went all night, and the day broke on them at Hebron.


Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel.


Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.


He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his wallet. His sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine.


And he sent and brought him in. And he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for he is the one."


It happened in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, "Know assuredly that you shall go out with me in the army, you and your men." David said to Achish, "Therefore you shall know what your servant will do." Achish said to David, "therefore I will make you my bodyguard for ever."





Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the City of David.


David came to Saul, and stood before him. He loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer. Saul sent to Jesse, saying, "Please let David stand before me; for he has found favor in my sight." It happened, when the spirit from God was on Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.


Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, "Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?" All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "Because the king is a close relative to us. Why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's cost? Or has he given us any gift?" The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, "We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more claim to David than you. Why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?" The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.


Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there. David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the wood. read more.
Jonathan, Saul's son, arose, and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God. He said to him, "Do not be afraid; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you; and that also Saul my father knows." They both made a covenant before the LORD: and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his house. Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, "Doesn't David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert? Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him up into the king's hand." Saul said, "You are blessed by the LORD; for you have had compassion on me. Please go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for it is told me that he deals very subtly. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself, and come again to me with certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah." They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert. Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them.


Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the history of Samuel the seer, and in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the history of Gad the seer, with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.


Saul said to David, "Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the LORD's battles." For Saul said, "Do not let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him." David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife. read more.
Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, "You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time." Saul commanded his servants, "Talk with David secretly, and say, 'Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you: now therefore be the king's son-in-law.'" Saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, "Does it seems to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, since I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?" The servants of Saul told him, saying, "David spoke like this." Saul said, "You shall tell David, 'The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.'" Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. The days were not expired; and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines one hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.


Nathan departed to his house. The LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it was very sick. David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his house arose beside him, to raise him up from the ground: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. read more.
It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?" But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He is dead." Then David arose from the ground, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into the house of the LORD, and worshiped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, "What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread." He said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?' But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."


David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa; and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated for the land.


These are the numbers of the heads of those who were armed for war, who came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the LORD. The children of Judah who bore shield and spear were six thousand and eight hundred, armed for war. Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valor for the war, seven thousand and one hundred. read more.
Of the children of Levi four thousand and six hundred. Jehoiada was the leader of the household of Aaron; and with him were three thousand and seven hundred, and Zadok, a young man mighty of valor, and of his father's house twenty-two captains. Of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand: for hitherto the greatest part of them had kept their allegiance to the house of Saul. Of the children of Ephraim twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of valor, famous men in their fathers' houses. Of the half-tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were mentioned by name, to come and make David king. Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their heads were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their commandment. Of Zebulun, such as were able to go out in the army, who could set the battle in array, with all kinds of instruments of war, fifty thousand, and who could command and were not of double heart. Of Naphtali one thousand captains, and with them with shield and spear thirty-seven thousand. Of the Danites who could set the battle in array, twenty-eight thousand six hundred. Of Asher, such as were able to go out in the army, who could set the battle in array, forty thousand. On the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and of the half-tribe of Manasseh, with all kinds of instruments of war for the battle, one hundred twenty thousand. All these being men of war, who could order the battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. They were there with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brothers had made preparation for them. Moreover those who were near to them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on donkeys, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, food of meal, cakes of figs, and clusters of raisins, and wine, and oil, and cattle, and sheep in abundance: for there was joy in Israel.


Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. It happened, when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, "Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?" He answered, "My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, I will saddle me a donkey, that I may ride thereon, and go with the king; because your servant is lame. read more.
He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is good in your eyes. For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should cry any more to the king?" The king said to him, "Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Ziba divide the land." Mephibosheth said to the king, "Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house."


Jonathan, Saul's son, arose, and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God. He said to him, "Do not be afraid; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you; and that also Saul my father knows." They both made a covenant before the LORD: and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his house.


But a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Hurry and come; for the Philistines have made a raid on the land." So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth.


When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband. When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.


Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. Joab sent messengers to David, and said, "I have fought against Rabbah. Yes, I have taken the city of waters. Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it; lest I take the city, and it be called after my name." read more.
David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. He took the crown of their king from off his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and in it were precious stones; and it was set on David's head. He brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount. He brought out the people who were therein, and put them under saws, and under iron picks, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln: and he did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.


A messenger came to David, saying, "The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom." David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, "Arise, and let us flee; for else none of us shall escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword." The king's servants said to the king, "Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses." read more.
The king went forth, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house. The king went forth, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beth Merhak. All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king. Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place. Whereas you came but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you." Ittai answered the king, and said, "As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king shall is, whether for death or for life, even there also will your servant be." David said to Ittai, "Go and pass over." Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him. All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. Behold, Zadok also came, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people finished passing out of the city. The king said to Zadok, "Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation; but if he say thus, 'I have no delight in you;' behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him." The king said also to Zadok the priest, "Aren't you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me." Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem; and they stayed there. David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up. Someone told David, saying, "Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom." David said, "LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." It happened that when David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head. David said to him, "If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me; but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father's servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.' Do you not have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son; and by them you shall send to me everything that you shall hear." So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city; and Absalom came into Jerusalem.


It happened, after they had departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David; and they said to David, "Arise and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you." Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan. When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and went home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father. read more.
Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. Absalom set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother. Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. It happened, when David had come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, roasted grain, honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat: for they said, "The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness."


Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went through the Jordan in the presence of the king. A ferry boat went to bring over the king's household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, when he had come over the Jordan. read more.
He said to the king, "Do not let my lord impute iniquity to me, nor remember that which your servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore behold, I have come this day the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king." But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, "Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD's anointed?" David said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be adversaries to me? Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel?" The king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." The king swore to him.


David said to Saul, "Your servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and killed him. Your servant struck both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them [Should I not go and smite him, and remove this day a reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one], since he has defied the armies of the living God?"


David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in to her, and lay with her. She bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. The LORD loved him; and he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he named him Jedidiah, for the LORD's sake.


Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went over the Jordan with the king, to conduct him over the Jordan. Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man. The king said to Barzillai, "Come over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Jerusalem." read more.
Barzillai said to the king, "How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king? Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you." The king answered, "Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you. Whatever you require of me, that I will do for you." All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. Then the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place. So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him. All the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half the people of Israel.


David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him.

Then the leaders of the Philistines went forth: and it happened, as often as they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was highly esteemed.


David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. The servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another about him in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?'" David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. read more.
He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"


There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites." The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); and David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?" read more.
The Gibeonites said to him, "It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel." He said, "Whatever you say, that will I do for you." They said to the king, "The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD." The king said, "I will give them." But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before the LORD, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest. Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa; and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated for the land.


All the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, "The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you not speak a word of bringing the king back?" King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, "Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, 'Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the speech of all Israel has come to the king, to return him to his house. read more.
You are my brothers, you are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king?' Say to Amasa, 'Aren't you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you aren't captain of the army before me continually in the room of Joab.'" He bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, "Return, you and all your servants." So the king returned, and came to the Jordan. Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan.


An evil spirit from the LORD was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand. Saul sought to pin David even to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he stuck the spear into the wall. David fled, and escaped that night. Saul sent messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed." read more.
So Michal let David down through the window. He went, fled, and escaped. Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes. When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick." Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him." When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' hair at its head. Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped?" Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'" Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth. It was told Saul, saying, "Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah." Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. Then went he also to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" One said, "Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah." He went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"


David and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Egypt. David struck the land, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the cattle, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the clothing; and he returned, and came to Achish. Achish said, "Against whom have you made a raid today?" David said, "Against the Negev of Judah, against the Negev of the Jerahmeelites, and against the Negev of the Kenites." read more.
David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying, "Lest they should tell of us, saying, 'David has done this, and this has been his way all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.'" Achish believed David, saying, "He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he shall be my servant forever."


They brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. When David had made an end of offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. He gave to all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women, to everyone a portion of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. So all the people departed everyone to his house.


When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.

David did so, as the LORD commanded him, and struck the Philistines from Geba until you come to Gezer.


Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself." David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of the LORD, over Israel. therefore I will celebrate before the LORD. I will be yet more vile than this, and will be humble in my own eyes. But of the handmaids of whom you have spoken, they shall honor me." read more.
Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.


When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.' From this man's seed, according to his promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus,


David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, "Deliver me my wife Michal, whom I pledged to be married to me for one hundred foreskins of the Philistines." Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Paltiel the son of Laish. Her husband went with her, weeping as he went, and followed her to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go. Return." and he returned.


David sent to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah had come to him, David asked of him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." Uriah departed out of the king's house, and a gift from the king was sent after him. read more.
But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they had told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Haven't you come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?" Uriah said to David, "The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing." David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day, and the next day. When David had called him, he ate and drink before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but did not go down to his house. It happened in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He wrote in the letter, saying, "Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck, and die." It happened, when Joab kept watch on the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were. The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; and he commanded the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king, it shall be that, if the king's wrath arise, and he asks you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall, who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did a woman not cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?' Then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'" So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. The messenger said to David, "The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate. The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also." Then David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall tell Joab, 'Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.' Encourage him."


The LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, "There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter. read more.
A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him." David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this is worthy to die. He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' "This is what the LORD says: 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.'" David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the LORD's enemies to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die."


Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; and Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Seraiah was scribe; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were chief ministers.


Now these are those who came to David to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men, his helpers in war. They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in slinging stones and in shooting arrows from the bow: they were of Saul's brothers of Benjamin. The chief was Ahiezer; then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite, and Jeziel, and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth, and Beracah, and Jehu the Anathothite, read more.
and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty, and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite, Eluzai, and Jerimoth, and Bealiah, and Shemariah, and Shephatiah the Haruphite, Elkanah, and Isshiah, and Azarel, and Joezer, and Jashobeam, the Korahites, and Joelah, and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor. Of the Gadites there separated themselves to David to the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for war, that could handle shield and spear; whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as the roes on the mountains; Ezer the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, Jeremiah the tenth, Machbannai the eleventh. These of the sons of Gad were captains of the army: he who was least was equal to one hundred, and the greatest to one thousand. These are those who went over the Jordan in the first month, when it had overflowed all its banks; and they put to flight all them of the valleys, both toward the east, and toward the west. There came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the stronghold to David. David went out to meet them, and answered them, "If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit to you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it." Then the Spirit came on Amasai, who was chief of the thirty, and he said, "We are yours, David, and on your side, you son of Jesse: peace, peace be to you, and peace be to your helpers; for your God helps you." Then David received them, and made them captains of the band. Of Manasseh also there fell away some to David, when he came with the Philistines against Saul to battle; but they did not help them; for the lords of the Philistines sent him away after consultation, saying, "He will fall away to his master Saul to the jeopardy of our heads." As he went to Ziklag, there fell to him of Manasseh, Adnah, and Jozabad, and Jediael, and Michael, and Jozabad, and Elihu, and Zillethai, captains of thousands who were of Manasseh. They helped David against the band of rovers: for they were all mighty men of valor, and were captains in the army. For from day to day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like the army of God.


David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son (and he commanded them to teach the children of Judah the bow; behold, it is written in the book of Jashar): "Your glory, Israel, is slain on your high places. How the mighty have fallen. read more.
Do not tell it in Gath. Do not publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain on you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away. The shield of Saul was not anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, Jonathan's bow did not turn back. Saul's sword did not return empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. In their death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions. You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet delicately, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle. Jonathan is slain on your high places. I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished."


Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him; and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?" Saul eyed David from that day and forward. It happened on the next day, that an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house. David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; read more.
and Saul threw the spear; for he said, "I will pin David even to the wall." David escaped from his presence twice. Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and was departed from Saul. Therefore Saul removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people. David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him. When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out and came in before them. Saul said to David, "Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the LORD's battles." For Saul said, "Do not let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him." David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife. Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, "You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time." Saul commanded his servants, "Talk with David secretly, and say, 'Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you: now therefore be the king's son-in-law.'" Saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, "Does it seems to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, since I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?" The servants of Saul told him, saying, "David spoke like this." Saul said, "You shall tell David, 'The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.'" Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. The days were not expired; and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines one hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife. Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David; and Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him. Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul was David's enemy continually. Then the leaders of the Philistines went forth: and it happened, as often as they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was highly esteemed.


Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, "Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead. Go in to the king, and speak like this to him." So Joab put the words in her mouth. read more.
And the woman of Tekoa went to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground, and showed respect, and said, "Help, O king." The king said to her, "What ails you?" She answered, "Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead. Your handmaid had two sons, and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other, and killed him. Behold, the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, 'Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.' Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth." The king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you." The woman of Tekoa said to the king, "My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house; and the king and his throne be guiltless." The king said, "Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more." Then she said, "Please let the king remember the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son." He said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground." Then the woman said, "Please let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king." He said, "Say on." The woman said, "Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one. For we must die, and are as water split on the ground, which can't be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him. Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, 'I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.' For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then your handmaid said, 'Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May the LORD, your God, be with you.'" Then the king answered the woman, "Please do not hide anything from me that I ask you." The woman said, "Let my lord the king now speak." The king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" The woman answered, "As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab, he urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid; to change the face of the matter has your servant Joab done this thing. My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth." The king said to Joab, "Behold now, I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the young man Absalom back." Joab fell to the ground on his face, showed respect, and blessed the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant." So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. The king said, "Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face." So Absalom returned to his own house, and did not see the king's face.


Then the king said to Amasa, "Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present." So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together; but he stayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him. David said to Abishai, "Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight." read more.
There went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was clothed in his apparel of war that he had put on, and on it was a sash with a sword fastened on his waist in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out. Joab said to Amasa, "Is it well with you, my brother?" Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and did not strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.


David was told, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors." Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go and strike these Philistines?" The LORD said to David, "Go strike the Philistines, and save Keilah." David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" read more.
Then David inquired of the LORD yet again. The LORD answered him, and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand." David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their livestock, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. It happened, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. It was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, "God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that has gates and bars." Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here." Then David said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant." The LORD said, "He will come down." Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?" The LORD said, "They will deliver you up." Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there.


When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached for the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the cattle stumbled. The anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God. David was displeased, because the LORD had broken forth on Uzzah; and he called that place Perez Uzzah, to this day. read more.
David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, "How shall the ark of the LORD come to me?" So David would not move the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David; but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months: and the LORD blessed Obed-Edom, and all his house.


David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, "How shall the ark of the LORD come to me?" So David would not move the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David; but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months: and the LORD blessed Obed-Edom, and all his house.


It happened at evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look on. David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. read more.
The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child."


It happened after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag; it happened on the third day, that behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul, with his clothes torn, and earth on his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and showed respect. David said to him, "Where do you come from?" He said to him, "I have escaped out of the camp of Israel." read more.
David said to him, "How did it go? Please tell me." He answered, "The people have fled from the battle, and many of the people also have fallen and are dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also." David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?" The young man who told him said, "As I happened by chance on Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul was leaning on his spear; and behold, the chariots and the horsemen followed hard after him. When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, 'Here I am.' He said to me, 'Who are you?' I answered him, 'I am an Amalekite.' He said to me, 'Please stand beside me, and kill me; for anguish has taken hold of me, because my life is yet whole in me.' So I stood beside him, and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord." Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and likewise all the men who were with him. They mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword. David said to the young man who told him, "Where are you from?" He answered, "I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite." David said to him, "How were you not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?" David called one of the young men, and said, "Go near, and fall on him." He struck him, so that he died. David said to him, "Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have slain the LORD's anointed.'"


It happened, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. read more.
Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his sash.


Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. Jonathan told David, saying, "Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself. I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you; and if I see anything, I will tell you." read more.
Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, "Do not let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you; for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?" Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan: and Saul swore, "As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death." Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as before.



Joab came into the house to the king, and said, "You have shamed this day the faces of all your servants, who this day have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines; in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. For you have declared this day, that leaders and servants are nothing to you. For today I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it would have pleased you well. Now therefore arise, go out, and speak to comfort your servants; for I swear by the LORD, if you do not go out, not a man will stay with you this night. That would be worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now."


Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, the man who was raised on high says, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me. His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, 'One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, read more.
shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.' Most certainly my house is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he doesn't make it grow. But all of the ungodly shall be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can't be taken with the hand, But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They shall be utterly burned with fire in their place."


There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, "We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel." So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.



David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, even the name of the LORD of hosts who sits above the cherubim. They set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in the hill: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. read more.
They brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was in the hill, with the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark. David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD with all their strength and with songs, and with harps, and with stringed instruments, and with tambourines, and with castanets, and with cymbals.


Say to Amasa, 'Aren't you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you aren't captain of the army before me continually in the room of Joab.'"


Then one of the young men answered, and said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a comely person; and the LORD is with him."


Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn't keep warm. Therefore his servants said to him, "Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin. And let her attend the king, and care for him; and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may keep warm." So they sought for a beautiful young lady throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. read more.
The young lady was very beautiful; and she became the king's attendant and served him; but the king did not know her intimately.


David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.


To David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; and his second, Kileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; read more.
and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.


The fame of David went out into all lands; and the LORD brought the fear of him on all nations.


Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."


The king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." The king swore to him.


There was war again. David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.


The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.


He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;


The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, saying, "The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul."


"Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
























He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.


You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey.


David said, "The LORD who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go; and the LORD shall be with you."


My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me;

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.


He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"


David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the place of the wagons, as the army which was going forth to the fight shouted for the battle.


So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran, and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. The wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath, and to Ekron.


David said, "The LORD who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go; and the LORD shall be with you."


Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, "Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house?


Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself."


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself."


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house. I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.

Fulfill your promise to your servant, that you may be feared.


Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.

A perverse heart will be far from me. I will have nothing to do with evil. I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor. I won't tolerate one who is haughty and conceited. My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way, he will serve me. read more.
He who practices deceit won't dwell within my house. He who speaks falsehood won't be established before my eyes.


David went there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what God will do for me."


David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.


Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, 'Do not lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.'"

Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan.

Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.


Be exalted, God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth.


The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go."

He said to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have done good to me, whereas I have done evil to you.


Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, "Doesn't David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert?

Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert, by the way. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.


The prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah." Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.


He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his wallet. His sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine.


Preserve my soul, for I am godly. You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you.


Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.


Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


David longed, and said, "Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate."


David longed, and said, "Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate."


His father had never scolded him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?" And he was also a very handsome man; and he was born after Absalom.


Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

It happened in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He wrote in the letter, saying, "Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck, and die." It happened, when Joab kept watch on the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were. read more.
The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.


Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'


David went there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what God will do for me."


Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.


David took from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for one hundred chariots.


When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever."'"


Then David the king went in, and sat before the LORD; and he said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord GOD; but you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come; and this after the way of men, Lord GOD. What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Lord GOD. read more.
For your word's sake, and according to your own heart, you have worked all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, LORD God. For there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods? You established for yourself your people Israel to be a people to you forever; and you, LORD, became their God. Now, LORD God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, confirm it forever, and do as you have spoken. Let your name be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David shall be established before you.' For you, the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to you. "Now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Lord GOD, have spoken it. Let the house of your servant be blessed forever with your blessing."

Now therefore, do not let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD; for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains."

Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea?

David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife. Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. read more.
Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, "You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time." Saul commanded his servants, "Talk with David secretly, and say, 'Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you: now therefore be the king's son-in-law.'" Saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, "Does it seems to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, since I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?"

Then David the king went in, and sat before the LORD; and he said, "Who am I, LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? This was a small thing in your eyes, God; but you have spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have respected me according to the estate of a man of high degree, LORD God. What can David say yet more to you concerning the honor which is done to your servant? For you know your servant. read more.
LORD, for your servant's sake, and according to your own heart, you have worked all this greatness, to make known all these great things. LORD, there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeemed out of Egypt? For your people Israel you made your own people forever; and you, LORD, became their God. Now, LORD, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken. Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel. The house of David your servant is established before you.' For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you. Now, LORD, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant. Now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, LORD, have blessed, and it is blessed forever."


But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.


They left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire.

They left their images there; and David and his men took them away.


You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain on you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away. The shield of Saul was not anointed with oil.

Afterward, when David heard it, he said, "I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner. Let it fall on the head of Joab, and on all his father's house. Let there not fail from the house of Joab one who has an issue, or who is a leper, or who leans on a staff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread."


Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."


Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.


And David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.


"The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.


So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran, and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. The wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath, and to Ekron.


and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty, and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite,


Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah." The king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, "Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the sum of the people." Joab said to the king, "Now may the LORD your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" read more.
Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. They passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer: then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan, and around to Sidon, and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba. So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword. But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

But David did not take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky. Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but did not finish; and there came wrath for this on Israel; neither was the number put into the account in the chronicles of king David.


It happened after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag;


Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." And he sent and brought him in. And he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for he is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.


The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, saying, "The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul."

The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

Then came all the tribes of Israel to David to Hebron, and spoke, saying, "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. The LORD said to you, 'You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.'" So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel. read more.
David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.



and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty, and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite,


As he went to Ziklag, there fell to him of Manasseh, Adnah, and Jozabad, and Jediael, and Michael, and Jozabad, and Elihu, and Zillethai, captains of thousands who were of Manasseh.


Elkanah, and Isshiah, and Azarel, and Joezer, and Jashobeam, the Korahites,


but they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them.


The chief was Ahiezer; then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite, and Jeziel, and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth, and Beracah, and Jehu the Anathothite,


and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty, and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite,


Then the people rejoiced, because they offered willingly, because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.


Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided a king for myself among his sons."


David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.


and to those who were in Racal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of the Kenites,


Achish said, "Against whom have you made a raid today?" David said, "Against the Negev of Judah, against the Negev of the Jerahmeelites, and against the Negev of the Kenites."


David said, "Is there yet any who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?"

She opens her mouth with wisdom. Faithful instruction is on her tongue.


When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and give praise in holy array, as they went out before the army, and say, Give thanks to the LORD; for his loving kindness endures forever.


The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, saying, "The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul."

The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.


David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.


David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

It happened at evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look on. David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. read more.
The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child." David sent to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah had come to him, David asked of him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." Uriah departed out of the king's house, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they had told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Haven't you come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?" Uriah said to David, "The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing." David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day, and the next day. When David had called him, he ate and drink before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but did not go down to his house. It happened in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He wrote in the letter, saying, "Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck, and die." It happened, when Joab kept watch on the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were. The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; and he commanded the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king, it shall be that, if the king's wrath arise, and he asks you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall, who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did a woman not cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?' Then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'" So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. The messenger said to David, "The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate. The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also." Then David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall tell Joab, 'Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.' Encourage him." When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband. When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.


that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the beginning of the world."


Also the Levites will no longer need to carry the tabernacle and all its vessels for its service."

For their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD, in the courts, and in the rooms, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of God's house; for the show bread also, and for the fine flour for a meal offering, whether of unleavened wafers, or of that which is baked in the pan, or of that which is soaked, and for all kinds of measure and size; and to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise in the evening; read more.
and to offer all burnt offerings to the LORD, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before the LORD; and that they should keep the duty of the Tent of Meeting, and the duty of the holy place, and the duty of the sons of Aaron their brothers, for the service of the house of the LORD.


David divided them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

They cast lots for their offices, all alike, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar. Now the first lot came forth for Asaph to Joseph: the second to Gedaliah; he and his brothers and sons were twelve: the third to Zaccur, his sons and his brothers, twelve: read more.
the fourth to Izri, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the fifth to Nethaniah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the sixth to Bukkiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the seventh to Jesharelah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the eighth to Jeshaiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the ninth to Mattaniah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the tenth to Shimei, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the eleventh to Azarel, his sons and his brothers, twelve: the twelfth to Hashabiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the thirteenth, Shubael, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the fourteenth, Mattithiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the fifteenth to Jeremoth, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the sixteenth to Hananiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the seventeenth to Joshbekashah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the eighteenth to Hanani, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the nineteenth to Mallothi, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the twentieth to Eliathah, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the one and twentieth to Hothir, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the two and twentieth to Giddalti, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the three and twentieth to Mahazioth, his sons and his brothers, twelve: for the four and twentieth to Romamti-Ezer, his sons and his brothers, twelve.


These were the sons of Levi after their fathers' houses, even the heads of ancestral houses of those who were counted individually, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of the house of the LORD, from twenty years old and upward.

For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered, from twenty years old and upward.


He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.

and those who were reckoned by genealogy of the priests by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their offices by their divisions;


And he gathered together all the leaders of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. The Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.


David said, "Of these, twenty-four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of the LORD; six thousand were officers and judges; four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which I made, for giving praise." David divided them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.


It happened, when David lived in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, "Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under curtains."

that the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains."

This Shelomoth and his brothers were over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which David the king, and the heads of the ancestral houses, the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the army, had dedicated.

King David also dedicated these to the LORD, with the silver and gold that he dedicated of all the nations which he subdued;

Thus all the work that king Solomon worked in the house of the LORD was finished. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.

I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. Now have I seen with joy your people, that are present here, offer willingly to you.

Then David the king stood up on his feet, and said, "Hear me, my brothers, and my people. As for me, it was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God; and I had prepared for the building.

"Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

King David said to Ornan, "No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering without cost."

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of various colors, and all kinds of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. In addition, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, since I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, I give it to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, with which to overlay the walls of the houses; read more.
of gold for the things of gold, and of silver for the things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be made by the hands of artisans. Who then offers willingly to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?"

LORD, remember David and all his affliction, how he swore to the LORD, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob: "Surely I will not come into the structure of my house, nor go up into my bed; read more.
I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids; until I find out a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."

He dealt to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread, and a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins.


You shall till the land for him, you, and your sons, and your servants; and you shall bring in the harvest, that your master's son may have bread to eat: but Mephibosheth your master's son shall eat bread always at my table." Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

David said to him, "Do not be afraid of him; for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your father. You shall eat bread at my table continually."


David said to Saul, "Your servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock,

Your servant struck both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them [Should I not go and smite him, and remove this day a reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one], since he has defied the armies of the living God?"


I went out after him, and struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and killed him. Your servant struck both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them [Should I not go and smite him, and remove this day a reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one], since he has defied the armies of the living God?"


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go."

He said to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have done good to me, whereas I have done evil to you.


David longed, and said, "Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate."


David said to him, "How were you not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?"

He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed, to put forth my hand against him, since he is the LORD's anointed." So David checked his men with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way. David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, "My lord the king." When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and showed respect. read more.
David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to men's words, saying, 'Behold, David seeks your hurt?' Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD's anointed.

Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, "Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?" Abishai said, "I will go down with you." So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him. Then Abishai said to David, "God has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time." read more.
David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against the LORD's anointed, and be guiltless?" David said, "As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go." So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head; and they went away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen on them. Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain afar off; a great space being between them; and David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, "Do you not answer, Abner?" Then Abner answered, "Who are you who cries to the king?" David said to Abner, "Aren't you a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. This thing isn't good that you have done. As the LORD lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the LORD's anointed. Now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head."


David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, 'Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you; and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.'


Rehoboam took him a wife, Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse;


David said, "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?"

Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head." The king said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because the LORD has said to him, 'Curse David;' who then shall say, 'Why have you done so?'" David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, "Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD has invited him. read more.
It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me good for the cursing of me today." So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust. The king, and all the people who were with him, came weary; and he refreshed himself there.

But I, as a deaf man, do not hear. I am as a mute man who doesn't open his mouth. Yes, I am as a man who doesn't hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs.

Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar. My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.


David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, "Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD has invited him.


Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth,


David went there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what God will do for me." He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.


David went there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what God will do for me."


Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.


David was displeased, because the LORD had broken forth on Uzzah; and he called that place Perez Uzzah, to this day.

I believed, therefore I said, "I am greatly afflicted." I said in my haste, "All men are liars."


Ezer the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third,


because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him.

When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'

He did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid. For the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD; and evil shall not be found in you all your days.

Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not completely follow after the LORD, as did David his father.

"'However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him prince all the days of his life, for David my servant's sake whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes;


I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will obey your righteous ordinances.


David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die.


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, "My son Absalom. My son, my son Absalom. I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son."

It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?" But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He is dead." Then David arose from the ground, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into the house of the LORD, and worshiped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he ate. read more.
Then his servants said to him, "What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread." He said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?' But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

The man said to Joab, "Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.' Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hidden from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against me."

So Joab came to the king, and told him; and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.

So Absalom fled, and went to Geshur, and was there three years. King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.

Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.

It was told Joab, "Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom." The victory that day was turned into mourning to all the people; for the people heard it said that day, "The king grieves for his son." The people sneaked into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. read more.
The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, "My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son." Joab came into the house to the king, and said, "You have shamed this day the faces of all your servants, who this day have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines; in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. For you have declared this day, that leaders and servants are nothing to you. For today I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it would have pleased you well.


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, "My son Absalom. My son, my son Absalom. I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son."


His father had never scolded him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?" And he was also a very handsome man; and he was born after Absalom.


His father had never scolded him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?" And he was also a very handsome man; and he was born after Absalom.


He was with David at Pasdammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where there was a plot of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines.


The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

King David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.


I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry.


I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.


But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

Nathan departed to his house. The LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it was very sick. David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.


And David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.


For it happened, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not completely follow after the LORD, as did David his father.


Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I do not know about.


SIN and SHIN. Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words.


Bathsheba went in to the king into the room. The king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite was attending to the king. Bathsheba bowed, and showed respect to the king. The king said, "What would you like?" And she said to him, "My lord, you swore by the LORD your God to your handmaid, 'Assuredly Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne.' read more.
Now, behold, Adonijah reigns; and you, my lord the king, do not know it. And he has sacrificed many oxen and fatlings and sheep, and has invited all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the commander of the army; but he hasn't invited Solomon your servant. And as for you, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you to announce to them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be considered criminals."


The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint; and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being armed with a new sword, thought to have slain David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you do not quench the lamp of Israel." read more.
It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant. There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, killed him. These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

After this it happened that David struck the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines.

When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?" The LORD said to David, "Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand." read more.
David came to Baal Perazim, and David struck them there; and he said, "The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of waters." Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. They left their images there; and David and his men took them away. The Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. When David inquired of the LORD, he said, "You shall not go up. Circle around behind them, and attack them over against the mulberry trees.

These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb Basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the officers; the same was Adino the Eznite, against eight hundred slain at one time. After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away. He arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and the LORD worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take spoil. read more.
After him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and the LORD worked a great victory.


and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were chief ministers.

therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will stretch out my hand on the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.

Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites. The word of the LORD is against you, Canaan, the land of the Philistines. I will destroy you, that there will be no inhabitant.


There was war again. David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.

David was told, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors." Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go and strike these Philistines?" The LORD said to David, "Go strike the Philistines, and save Keilah." David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" read more.
Then David inquired of the LORD yet again. The LORD answered him, and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand." David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their livestock, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.


Achish answered David, "I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God. Nevertheless the leaders of the Philistines have said, 'He shall not go up with us to the battle.'

David said to Achish, "Therefore you shall know what your servant will do." Achish said to David, "therefore I will make you my bodyguard for ever."


Saul said, "You shall tell David, 'The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.'" Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. The days were not expired; and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines one hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.


He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his wallet. His sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine. The Philistine came on and drew near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him. When the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair face. read more.
The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" The Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field." Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today, the LORD will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD doesn't save with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand." It happened, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.


David said in his heart, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand." David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. read more.
It was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. David said to Achish, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?" Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: why Ziklag pertains to the kings of Judah to this day. The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.


The lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands; and David and his men passed on in the rear with Achish. Then the leaders of the Philistines said, "What about these Hebrews?" And Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, "Isn't this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell away to this day?" But the leaders of the Philistines were angry with him; and the leaders of the Philistines said to him, "Make the man return, that he may go back to his place where you have appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For with what should this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Should it not be with the heads of these men? read more.
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?'" Then Achish called David, and said to him, "As the LORD lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords do not favor you. Therefore now return, and go in peace, that you not displease the lords of the Philistines."


"Hear my prayer, LORD, and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.


David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

To David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; and his second, Kileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; read more.
and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed is the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The LORD has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head." David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to him as wife. When the servants of David had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife." She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, "Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." read more.
Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his wives. Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

David took more wives at Jerusalem; and David became the father of more sons and daughters.


All the people took notice of it, and it pleased them; as whatever the king did pleased all the people.


Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.


Then David the king went in, and sat before the LORD; and he said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord GOD; but you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come; and this after the way of men, Lord GOD. What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Lord GOD. read more.
For your word's sake, and according to your own heart, you have worked all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, LORD God. For there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods? You established for yourself your people Israel to be a people to you forever; and you, LORD, became their God. Now, LORD God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, confirm it forever, and do as you have spoken. Let your name be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David shall be established before you.' For you, the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to you. "Now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Lord GOD, have spoken it. Let the house of your servant be blessed forever with your blessing."

He said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?' But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."


In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.


Redeem Israel, God, from all of his troubles.


Then David the king went in, and sat before the LORD; and he said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord GOD; but you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come; and this after the way of men, Lord GOD. What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Lord GOD. read more.
For your word's sake, and according to your own heart, you have worked all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, LORD God. For there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods? You established for yourself your people Israel to be a people to you forever; and you, LORD, became their God. Now, LORD God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, confirm it forever, and do as you have spoken. Let your name be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David shall be established before you.' For you, the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to you. "Now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Lord GOD, have spoken it. Let the house of your servant be blessed forever with your blessing."


Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly; and David said, "You are blessed, LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all; and in your hand is power and might; and it is in your hand to make great, and to give strength to all. read more.
Now therefore, our God, we thank you, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining. The LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name comes from your hand, and is all your own. I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. Now have I seen with joy your people, that are present here, offer willingly to you. The LORD, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and prepare their heart for you; and give to Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision."


Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself."


Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of various colors, and all kinds of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.


When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

"I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant, 'I will establish your seed forever, and build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah.

Once have I sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His seed will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me.


Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that one of his descendants would sit on his throne,

I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety. For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption. read more.
You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

For David says concerning him, 'I saw the Lord always before my face, For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.


that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the beginning of the world."


"The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.


I love you, LORD, my strength. The LORD is my Rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my Rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.


Then one of the young men answered, and said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a comely person; and the LORD is with him."


that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the beginning of the world."


David said to him, "How were you not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?"

David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, "As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, when someone told me, 'Behold, Saul is dead,' thinking to have brought good news, I took hold of him, and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?" read more.
David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.


David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."



David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die.


Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "Isn't it so, if peace and truth shall be in my days?"

But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

but if he say thus, 'I have no delight in you;' behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him."


But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."


He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor: and Solomon his son reigned in his place.


The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.


David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the place of the wagons, as the army which was going forth to the fight shouted for the battle.



I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.


I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.


David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this is worthy to die. He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.


Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.


Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.


I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your Law is within my heart."


David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab,

of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, and his brothers two hundred;


Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."

He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

Now therefore you shall tell my servant David this, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people, over Israel.


So they sought for a beautiful young lady throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.


LORD, my heart isn't haughty, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.


For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.

saying, "I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? You see to it."

David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."

and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.

If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

I said, "LORD, have mercy on me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you."


Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.


And David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.


For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his ordinances were before me. I did not put away his statutes from me.


When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together. Hadadezer sent, and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach the captain of the army of Hadadezer at their head. It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. The Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him. read more.
The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians seven hundred charioteers, and forty thousand horsemen, and struck Shobach the captain of their army, so that he died there. When all the kings who were servants to Hadadezer saw that they were defeated before Israel, they made peace with Israel, and served them. So the Syrians feared to help the children of Ammon any more.


When the children of Ammon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men. When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the army of the mighty men. The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field. read more.
Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians: The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and he put them in array against the children of Ammon. He said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. Be courageous, and let us be strong for our people, and for the cities of our God; and the LORD do that which seems good to him." So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Syrians: and they fled before him. When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.


King David also dedicated these to the LORD, with the silver and gold that he dedicated of all the nations which he subdued; of Aram, and of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.


David earned a reputation when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the Valley of Salt, even eighteen thousand men.


When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.


Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought tribute. The LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.


In addition, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, since I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, I give it to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house,

that the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains."

David said to Solomon his son, "As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God.

how he swore to the LORD, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob: "Surely I will not come into the structure of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids; read more.
until I find out a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."


Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of various colors, and all kinds of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. In addition, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, since I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, I give it to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, with which to overlay the walls of the houses; read more.
of gold for the things of gold, and of silver for the things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be made by the hands of artisans. Who then offers willingly to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?"

David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to cut worked stones to build God's house. David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight; and cedar trees without number: for the Sidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar trees in abundance to David. read more.
David said, "Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries. I will therefore make preparation for it." So David prepared abundantly before his death.

Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of the LORD one hundred thousand talents of gold, one million talents of silver, and brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance. I have also prepared timber and stone; and you may add to them. There are also workmen with you in abundance, cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all kinds of men who are skillful in every kind of work: of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may the LORD be with you."


"You know how that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.

But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.

"Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD, "Shall you build me a house for me to dwell in? For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I say a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'"' read more.
Now therefore you shall tell my servant David this, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people, over Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.


Then he called for Solomon his son, and commanded him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon his son, "As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God.

Now, my son, may the LORD be with you and prosper you, and build the house of the LORD your God, as he has spoken concerning you.


When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.


And David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, "Isn't the LORD your God with you? Hasn't he given you rest on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek after the LORD your God. Arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD."


Then the leaders of the ancestral houses, and the leaders of the tribes of Israel, and the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with the officers over the king's work, offered willingly; and they gave for the service of God's house of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand darics, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and of iron a hundred thousand talents. They with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the LORD, under the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. read more.
Then the people rejoiced, because they offered willingly, because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.


and give to Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision."


It happened at evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look on.


It happened at evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look on. David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. read more.
The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child."


David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead, and said to them, "Blessed are you by the LORD, that you have shown this kindness to your lord, even to Saul, and have buried him. Now may the LORD show loving kindness and truth to you. I also will reward you for this kindness, because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them."


Now therefore, our God, we thank you, and praise your glorious name.


David said, "I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me." So David sent by his servants to comfort him concerning his father. David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.


But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.


Now therefore, our God, we thank you, and praise your glorious name.


who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.


Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "Isn't it so, if peace and truth shall be in my days?"

But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

but if he say thus, 'I have no delight in you;' behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him."


I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your Law is within my heart."


Your neck is like David's tower built for an armory, whereon a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men.


Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;

"'"My servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them.

David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.

Then you spoke in vision to your holy ones, and said, "I have bestowed strength on the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people. I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil,


"'"My servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them.

David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.

Then you spoke in vision to your holy ones, and said, "I have bestowed strength on the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people. I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil,


Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place. Whereas you came but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you."

He said to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have done good to me, whereas I have done evil to you.

David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."

Do not let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord GOD of Hosts. Do not let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.

The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to the LORD. He said, "Be it far from me, LORD, that I should do this. Isn't it the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things.


Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.


Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.


I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.


David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."


Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth."


References

Fausets

Morish

Watsons